Update packaging changes…

Hey folks,

Just a heads up that the way in which the FCS definition updates are packaged is being revised. We wanted to announce that the antimalwaredefinitions team has released a set of improvements that will drastically reduce both the size of the definition downloads for:

  • Microsoft Update to WSUS
  • WSUS Upstream Server to WSUS Downstream Server

and the network utilization during those transfers.  

We will be releasing an update to Microsoft Knowledge Base article 977939 in the near future that details the specifics with regards to the change, but we wanted to make you are aware that this is already in place and working properly.  

The short description is that we are no longer downloading the full base set of definitions and engine with each download to WSUS.  Instead, there is a monthly base package that is downloaded and then deltas that revolve around that monthly base are downloaded by the WSUS server for each definition release.  The result of this is that instead of seeing hundreds of megabytes per day downloaded by WSUS, the downloads should instead be in the low tens of megabytes.  For those with WSUS servers on slower WAN links or for those with restricted bandwidth on internet connections, this is much needed relief in regards to our definition distribution mechanism. 

Thanks -

Kurt Falde, Microsoft Forefront Support Escalation Engineer